Apple – Fuji – tasting notes, identification, reviews

Fuji is surely one of the most attractive modern apple varieties. Its main characteristic is the lovely pink speckled flush over a yellow-green background. It is also crisp and juicy, with dull white flesh which snaps cleanly. The flavor is predominantly sweet, very refreshing (especially if slightly chilled), but perhaps not particularly outstanding.

As you might expect, Fuji comes from Japan. A development program was started in the late 1930s at Tohoku Fruit Tree Research Station in the city of Morioka, located in the main apple growing region of Iwate on the island of Honshu. The aim was to develop a variety that would appeal to Japanese tastes, particularly in terms of appearance, size, and sweetness. At that time one of the most commonly-grown apple varieties in Japan was the old American variety Rall’s Janet (“Kokkoh”) and many seedlings were raised by crossing this with other varieties. Fuji was eventually released in 1962, a cross between Rall’s Janet and Delicious, known as “Apple Number 1”. The original seedling tree, still flourishes to this day in Morioka. More details of the development of Fuji in this article.

Fuji went on to become one of the leading apple varieties worldwide. Fuji apples are widely grown, the main northern hemisphere production comes from Japan, China and the USA. Fuji is a late-ripening apple variety, and becomes available in November/December northern hemisphere orchards) and May/June (southern hemisphere orchards). Fuji apples need lots of sunshine to ripen properly.